Computer-based applications, including real-time embedded applications, may include input/output (IO) devices that carry high-priority (real-time) data, as well as low priority best effort data. The high priority traffic is often to be processed quickly by the CPU, however even with technologies like Data Direct I/O (DDIO) which allow IO transactions to target Cache directly; the high priority transactions can be pushed out of cache by the competing best effort IO traffic. The inability to prioritize which transactions target cache, and which are evicted when additional IO transactions come in, renders DDIO ineffective for applications that have a demand for fast cache transactions.